Anyone know good RUSSIAN films on WW2 that have at least some semblance of reality :P

witchbottles

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I have no idea the name of the film anymore, it is in Russian with English or French subtitles. Plot is a Russian ambulance team and its wounded soldier inside get cut off from the Russian advance and forces in 1945 invasion of Manchuria. They kind of wander around and try to not get noticed and survive, while all around them the aftereffects of the last stages of the war are occurring. Seemed rather well done and not your typical WW2 movie by any means.

Not WW2 era, but that Korean movie with English subtitle on the defenders at the boys school in Sept 1950 was a well done movie, IIRC. (It's been a while since I watched it). Same with the movie with english subtitles on the Chinese Civil War commander who spent a lifetime trying to prove he never retreated or bailed out of his last position (Assembly?). good film there.

finally, Dimly recall a movie of Finnish militia vs Russian KV-1s and BT tanks in Finnish with english subtitles- good use of illustrating the Finnish regular-issue Molotov Cocktail. Seemed decently historically portrayed. finns hold the line for a while but finally get ground under by the sheer number of attacks and no reinforcements or new supplies or weapons- finally results in their withdrawal. Can't recall the name of that one, either.
 

witchbottles

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No film will be truly real, the cast nearly always get to walk away (though bad shit occasionally happens on set). I'm thinking about not having German marked M47s in sunny Spain for the Ardennes. I do make allowances for explosions beefed up with petrol for extra dramatic effect. I have no problem with StuGs mocked up on FV-432 and similar or Tigers on T-34/T-54, at least the crew made the effort.

I didn't include Saving Private Ryan simply because the underlying plot premise didn't seem right to me. YMMV. Band of Brothers and The Pacific were series rather than films. Having said that, those three get very high marks in terms of production quality and perceived realism. Despite all it's faults Pearl Harbour also ranks high in terms of special effects and equipment, however I feel its story line sucked like a tornado.

In the air war department there have been some excellent films; The Blue Max (1966), The Red Baron (1971), Memphis Belle (1990), Battle Of Britain (1969), Tora!, Tora! Tora! (1970), Aces High (1976) and Fortress (2012).
Best part of Battle of Britain was the Spanish license-built copies of Messerschmitts. Excellent job on finding those airframes and filming them in flight!
 

Yuri0352

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Best part of Battle of Britain was the Spanish license-built copies of Messerschmitts. Excellent job on finding those airframes and filming them in flight!
Personally, I enjoyed seeing the Heinkel 111's which were borrowed from the Spanish air force. I had the pleasure of actually visiting the inside of one of the HE-111's from this film when the aircraft visited the Chino Air Show several years ago. The aircraft which I toured had at one time been used as the personal transport of Gen. Franco.
 

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Best part of Battle of Britain was the Spanish license-built copies of Messerschmitts. Excellent job on finding those airframes and filming them in flight!
Personally, I enjoyed seeing the Heinkel 111's which were borrowed from the Spanish air force. I had the pleasure of actually visiting the inside of one of the HE-111's from this film when the aircraft visited the Chino Air Show several years ago. The aircraft which I toured had at one time been used as the personal transport of Gen. Franco.
At least they had flyable airframes to work with. For The Blue Max they not only used repainted Tiger Moths and similar but built replica Fokker Dr.1 and D.VII, Pfalz D.III and SE.5, many of which were used in later films. We are accustomed to the wonders of modern CGI, but this film was from 1966 when text only computer terminals were still a rarity. I passed by a small airfield during day release from school to Dublin a dozen or so times and many of the replicas were visible from the bus. They spent $250,000 on the replicas, a big chunk of change back then. Filming, including the flying sequences, was done in Ireland
 

witchbottles

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Personally, I enjoyed seeing the Heinkel 111's which were borrowed from the Spanish air force. I had the pleasure of actually visiting the inside of one of the HE-111's from this film when the aircraft visited the Chino Air Show several years ago. The aircraft which I toured had at one time been used as the personal transport of Gen. Franco.
There is a good book written by the cinemaphotographers of Battle of Britain, sometime in the 1980's , describing their travails at first getting, and then returning to a flyable condition, the airframes used in the flying sequences of the film. Great book read, there.
 

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holdit

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At least they had flyable airframes to work with. For The Blue Max they not only used repainted Tiger Moths and similar but built replica Fokker Dr.1 and D.VII, Pfalz D.III and SE.5, many of which were used in later films. We are accustomed to the wonders of modern CGI, but this film was from 1966 when text only computer terminals were still a rarity. I passed by a small airfield during day release from school to Dublin a dozen or so times and many of the replicas were visible from the bus. They spent $250,000 on the replicas, a big chunk of change back then. Filming, including the flying sequences, was done in Ireland
The bridge the pilots cross in their truck near the beginning is in my town.
 
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